Analysis

Brendan Adams from Radio Wilcannia

“We have to rely on bottled water to bathe our babies. There is no fresh water to drink,” explained local Wilcannia Aboriginal elder Brendan Adams. "We are all living in Third World conditions.”

One of the many street artworks that have emerged as part of Lebanon's rebellion against corruption.

There is a real rebellion taking place. It is time to choose sides.

Blocakde IMARC protest in Melbourne on October 30.

Environmentalists are going to have to get a whole lot more radical if Prime Minister Scott Morrison gets his way on proposed new measures targeting anti-mining activism.

A ferry workers strike in Brisbane on December 6, 2018.

Governments — and the corporations they serve — understand that as the economic and climate crises deepen, they will need to resort to more authoritarian measures to maintain their ecologically and socially destructive system.

A placard at a refugee rights rally in Sydney on July 21.

The government's treatment of refugees reads like something out of George Orwell’s seminal work, 1984. Fortunately, 1984 is fiction and we can force them to change.

Protesters blockade the IMARC mining conference in Melbourne on October 29.

Blockade IMARC Alliance was set up to disrupt business-as-usual for the corporate criminals attendance the conference — and when the conference rolls around again next year, we will be back, in even bigger numbers, to ensure we shut them down for good.

Police spray chemical foam at anti-IMARC protesters

A protester recounts how Victoria Police brutally attacked protesters with chemical foam and pepper spray at the peaceful blockade of the International Mining and Resources Conference on October 30.

North Melbourne Community Health centre.

Some of those who have raised concerns about the service are worried about an apparent rise in visibility of public injecting in the area. Emerging evidence on the other objectives, however, show the clear benefits of the service.

The debate on agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gases has been perverted to deflect blame onto farmers and avoid talking about real solutions.

Labor’s policy silence has officially been broken with leader Anthony Albanese’s Orwellian vision statement, “Jobs and the Future of Work”, in which he seeks to spells out how Australia can confront the climate crisis and ramp up coal and gas export.

Treasury says the economy is performing “modestly”, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed calls for additional stimulus spending & Reserve Bank of Australia chief Philip Lowe predicts growth will return to “trend” over the next year.
So nothing to worry about, right?

Labor’s announcement that it supports declaring a climate emergency is no doubt directly related to the growing movement for climate action. Yet it is also clear that, for now, this remains little more than an empty gesture.